Well, summer is drawing to a close… and school starts for me tomorrow! This will probably be the last summer until I graduate where I don’t take summer school, so I definitely got the most out it, methinks.

The tour with Maggie Morris went pretty well, despite some logistical obstacles. All told, we played 12 shows and covered around 2700 miles. The full story can be found on the tour blog I updated pretty fairly frequently during the 3 week stint: Photograph That City… which is named for one of my favorite of her songs. I also posted TONS of photos, both from my Leica and Holga (I left the Lubitel at home, as its a little bulky). There’s around 10 videos from the road posted here: other bands we played with, animals we encountered, and some of  our delirious shenanigans.

This was basically a primer for my camping trip in Yosemite, which starts on Labor Day. I’ll be up there for a week, hiking, biking around, taking photos and probably writing music…. just un-plugging for awhile. I’ll be attempting to re-create some of my father’s photos of Yosemite from September 1968. He visited Yosemite alone for a spell, just after he returned from Vietnam. I’ve done some research on Flickr, trying to nail down some of the locations Dad captured, so we’ll see how it turns out. I’m beyond excited to unplug for awhile, especially after the year I’ve had.

Lots of stuff happening with my own music these days. A lot of writing. Played a few last minute shows during the tour (in Chico, Stockton, Oakland, Sacramento)… sort of road-testing new songs. I’m auditioning for a drummer and a bass player this week (having already formed a new bond with my v-ball pal Sam for pedal steel duties). I think I’ve narrowed it down though, so we’ll probably spend the next few months rehearsing and maybe recording.

PS. the title of this entry comes from one of my favorite Yo La Tengo songs – Yo La Tengo – The Summer (live on KEXP)

This is what it looks like when I am sitting at the corner of Market and Montgomery during rush hour in SF, waiting for the “No Bikes” restriction to end on BART. If you look closely in the first few seconds, you’ll notice one of SF’s most famous residents, Frank Chu, waddling by. Another video I made of my usual afternoon BART commute got picked up by BART’s un-official blog, so that’s kind of cool.

School is out for the summer, Alice Cooper-style. I’m fairly sure I aced my finals (well, I haven’t gotten my CSS grades back, but my site looked  & worked fine in multiple browsers, so I think that’sa good thing). I’ve got a few projects lined up for the summer, mostly right brained activities:

- Take lots of photos

Prime Smoked Meats - downtown Oakland

I’ve been taking a few safaris with my salty friends Leica, Lubitel and Holga… mostly around Oakland and SF, as you can see from this latest photoset. I’ve also booked a week in Yosemite at the end of the summer, both to unplug from the world a bit and to replicate a series of photos that my dad took in November of 1968. I need to scan these in first (both for comparison and research purposes), so I will share them when I can. I’ll try to shoot a few other locales if possible (Albany Bulb, Freetsone, Monterey, Los Angeles, and the North Coast come to mind).

- Ride my bike more often

This is kind of a given, since I ride it to work every day… but I’ve been meaning to take more weekend excursions. My car is on it’s last legs anyway, so I am toying with the idea of getting rid of it? I could certainly use one less money drain in my life. I recently had some work done on my Nishiki at Manifesto Bikes in Oakland – single gear conversion and switched out the handlebars. They are a really cool and un-assuming shop that does good work, and take particular pride in their local biking community.

- Return to music-making

That statement should probably come as a welcome surprise to anyone I’ve spoken to in the last 3 years or so. I’ve been avoiding my instruments until recently. I’ve been collecting song fragments here and there, but there’s been offers to contribute to one or two top secret local projects as well. I’m probably keener on the latter… I enjoy being in the background. Good thing I didn’t sell off my bass.

- Recreational reading

It may sound silly at first (especially coming from a failed librarian), but really I’ve been saddled with so much reading for school that it would be nice to digest something that wasn’t a CSS manual or a monograph on postmodern epistemology in art. Right now, I’ve been into Descent, which is an account of Beebe and Barton, the two guys who built the first bathysphere.

Current music: The Wooden Birds